Related
Sometimes I want to edit a certain visual block of text across multiple lines.
For example, I would take a text that looks like this:
name
comment
phone
email
And make it look like this
vendor_name
vendor_comment
vendor_phone
vendor_email
Currently the way I would do it now is...
Select all 4 row lines of a block by pressing V and then j four times.
Indent with >.
Go back one letter with h.
Go to block visual mode with Ctrlv.
Select down four rows by pressing j four times. At this point you have selected a 4x1 visual blocks of whitespace (four rows and one column).
Press C. Notice this pretty much indented to the left by one column.
Type out a " vendor_" without the quote. Notice the extra space we had to put back.
Press Esc. This is one of the very few times I use Esc to get out of insert mode. Ctrlc would only edit the first line.
Repeat step 1.
Indent the other way with <.
I don't need to indent if there is at least one column of whitespace before the words. I wouldn't need the whitespace if I didn't have to clear the visual block with c.
But if I have to clear, then is there a way to do what I performed above without creating the needed whitespace with indentation?
Also why does editing multiple lines at once only work by exiting out of insert mode with Esc over Ctrlc?
Here is a more complicated example:
name = models.CharField( max_length = 135 )
comment = models.TextField( blank = True )
phone = models.CharField( max_length = 135, blank = True )
email = models.EmailField( blank = True )
to
name = models.whatever.CharField( max_length = 135 )
comment = models.whatever.TextField( blank = True )
phone = models.whatever.CharField( max_length = 135, blank = True )
email = models.whatever.EmailField( blank = True )
In this example I would perform the vertical visual block over the ., and then reinsert it back during insert mode, i.e., type .whatever.. Hopefully now you can see the drawback to this method. I am limited to only selecting a column of text that are all the same in a vertical position.
Move the cursor to the n in name.
Enter visual block mode (Ctrlv).
Press j three times (or 3j) to jump down by 3 lines; G (capital g) to jump to the last line
Press I (capital i).
Type in vendor_. Note: It will only update the screen in the first line - until Esc is pressed (6.), at which point all lines will be updated.
Press Esc.
An uppercase I must be used rather than a lowercase i, because the lowercase i is interpreted as the start of a text object, which is rather useful on its own, e.g. for selecting inside a tag block (it):
Another approach is to use the . (dot) command in combination with i.
Move the cursor where you want to start
Press i
Type in the prefix you want (e.g. vendor_)
Press esc.
Press j to go down a line
Type . to repeat the last edit, automatically inserting the prefix again
Alternate quickly between j and .
I find this technique is often faster than the visual block mode for small numbers of additions and has the added benefit that if you don't need to insert the text on every single line in a range you can easily skip them by pressing extra j's.
Note that for large number of contiguous additions, the block approach or macro will likely be superior.
Select the lines you want to modify using CtrlV.
Press:
I: Insert before what's selected.
A: Append after what's selected.
c: Replace what's selected.
Type the new text.
Press Esc to apply the changes to all selected lines.
I would use a macro to record my actions and would then repeat it.
Put your cursor on the first letter in name.
Hit qq to start recording into the q buffer.
Hit i to go into insert mode, type vector_, and then hit Esc to leave insert mode.
Now hit 0 to go back to the beginning of the line.
Now hit j to go down.
Now hit q again to stop recording.
You now have a nice macro.
Type 3#q to execute your macro three times to do the rest of the lines.
:%s/^/vendor_/
or am I missing something?
Updated January 2016
Whilst the accepted answer is a great solution, this is actually slightly fewer keystrokes, and scales better - based in principle on the accepted answer.
Move the cursor to the n in name.
Enter visual block mode (ctrlv).
Press 3j
Press I.
Type in vendor_.
Press esc.
Note, this has fewer keystrokes than the accepted answer provided (compare Step 3). We just count the number of j actions to perform.
If you have line numbers enabled (as illustrated above), and know the line number you wish to move to, then step 3 can be changed to #G where # is the wanted line number.
In our example above, this would be 4G. However when dealing with just a few line numbers an explicit count works well.
An alternative that can be more flexible:
Example: To enter the text XYZ at the beginning of the line
:%norm IXYZ
What's happening here?
% == Execute on every line
norm == Execute the following keys in normal mode (short for normal)
I == Insert at beginning of line
XYZ == The text you want to enter
Then you hit Enter, and it executes.
Specific to your request:
:%norm Ivendor_
You can also choose a particular range:
:2,4norm Ivendor_
Or execute over a selected visual range:
:'<,'>norm Ivendor_
Or execute for each line that matches a 'target' regex:
:%g/target/norm Ivendor_
I wanted to comment out a lot of lines in some config file on a server that only had vi (no nano), so visual method was cumbersome as well
Here's how i did that.
Open file vi file
Display line numbers :set number! or :set number
Then use the line numbers to replace start-of-line with "#", how?
:35,77s/^/#/
Note: the numbers are inclusive, lines from 35 to 77, both included will be modified.
To uncomment/undo that, simply use :35,77s/^#//
If you want to add a text word as a comment after every line of code, you can also use:
:35,77s/$/#test/ (for languages like Python)
:35,77s/;$/;\/\/test/ (for languages like Java)
credits/references:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/84929/uncommenting-multiple-lines-of-code-specified-by-line-numbers-using-vi-or-vim
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/120615/how-to-comment-multiple-lines-at-once
You might also have a use case where you want to delete a block of text and replace it.
Like this
Hello World
Hello World
To
Hello Cool
Hello Cool
You can just visual block select "World" in both lines.
Type c for change - now you will be in insert mode.
Insert the stuff you want and hit escape.
Both get reflected vertically. It works just like 'I', except that it replaces the block with the new text instead of inserting it.
Suppose you have this file:
something
name
comment
phone
email
something else
and more ...
You want to add "vendor_" in front of "name", "comment", "phone", and "email", regardless of where they appear in the file.
:%s/\<\(name\|comment\|phone\|email\)\>/vendor_\1/gc
The c flag will prompt you for confirmation. You can drop that if you don't want the prompt.
Use Ctrl+V to enter visual block mode
Move Up/Down to select the columns of text in the lines you want to comment.
Then hit Shift+i and type the text you want to insert.
Then hit Esc, wait 1 second and the inserted text will appear on every line
Ctrl + v to go to visual block mode
Select the lines using the up and down arrow
Enter lowercase 3i (press lowercase I three times)
I (press capital I. That will take you into insert mode.)
Write the text you want to add
Esc
Press the down arrow
I came here to paste in many lines an already copied string. When copy with y we can paste, in the INSERT MODE, pressing Ctrl+r and right after press ''. This will have the same result as being in NORMAL MODE and press p. This is called paste from registry.
Suppose the following text in the buffer:
vendor_something
text
to_receive
the_paste
pattern
Then we can put the cursor pointing to v in vendor_ and press v, move to right using l until select the underscore symbol we want to paste in the text bellow. After that, we can point the cursor at the beginning of "text" (two lines bellow vendor_something) and press Ctrl+v. Then I to go into INSERT MODE where we press 3j Ctrl+r '' Esc. The result of this sequence will be:
vendor_something
vendor_text
vendor_to_receive
vendor_the_paste
vendor_pattern
:.,+3s/^/vendor_/
Another example, I needed to just add two spaces to a block of 125 lines, so I used (with cursor positioned at the beginning of the first line of the block):
:.,+125s/^/ /
Worked great.
If the change is required in the entire file,
:1,$s/^/vendor_/
If the change is required for only a few lines,
Go to the first line where change is required, and either give the command
:.,ns/^/vendor_/
Substitute n with the line number of the last line in the block.
Or,
:.,+ns/^/vendor_/
Substitute n with number of lines minus 1 in which the change is required.
Suppose I have the piece of text below with the cursor staying at the first A currently,
AAAA
BBB
CC
D
How can I add spaces in front of each line to make it like, and it would be great if the number of columns of spaces can be specified on-the-fly, e.g., two here.
AAAA
BBB
CC
D
I would imagine there is a way to do it quickly in visual mode, but any ideas?
Currently I'm copying the first column of text in visual mode twice, and replace the entire two column to spaces, which involves > 5 keystrokes, too cumbersome.
Constraint:
Sorry that I didn't state the question clearly and might create some confusions.
The target is only part of a larger file, so it would be great if the number of rows and columns starting from the first A can be specified.
Edit:
Thank both #DeepYellow and #Johnsyweb, apparently >} and >ap are all great tips that I was not aware of, and they both could be valid answers before I clarified on the specific requirement for the answer to my question, but in any case, #luser droog 's answer stands out as the only viable answer. Thank you everyone!
I'd use :%s/^/ /
You could also specify a range of lines :10,15s/^/ /
Or a relative range :.,+5s/^/ /
Or use regular expressions for the locations :/A/,/D/>.
For copying code to paste on SO, I usually use sed from the terminal sed 's/^/ /' filename
Shortcut
I just learned a new trick for this. You enter visual mode v, select the region (with regular movement commands), then hit : which gives you this:
:'<,'>
ready for you to type just the command part of the above commands, the marks '< and '> being automatically set to the bounds of the visual selection.
To select and indent the current paragraph:
vip>
or
vip:>
followed by enter.
Edit:
As requested in the comments, you can also add spaces to the middle of a line using a regex quantifier \{n} on the any meta-character ..
:%s/^.\{14}/& /
This adds a space 14 chars from the left on each line. Of course % could be replaced by any of the above options for specifying the range of an ex command.
When on the first A, I'd go in block visual mode ctrl-v, select the lines you want to modify, press I (insert mode with capital i), and apply any changes I want for the first line. Leaving visual mode esc will apply all changes on the first line to all lines.
Probably not the most efficient on number of key-strokes, but gives you all the freedom you want before leaving visual mode. I don't like it when I have to specify by hand the line and column range in a regex command.
I'd use >}.
Where...
>: Shifts right and
}: means until the end of the paragraph
Hope this helps.
Ctrl + v (to enter in visual mode)
Use the arrow keys to select the lines
Shift + i (takes you to insert mode)
Hit space keys or whatever you want to type in front of the selected lines.
Save the changes (Use :w) and now you will see the changes in all the selected lines.
I would do like Nigu. Another solution is to use :normal:
<S-v> to enter VISUAL-LINE mode
3j or jjj or /D<CR> to select the lines
:norm I<Space><Space>, the correct range ('<,'>) being inserted automatically
:normal is probably a bit overkill for this specific case but sometimes you may want to perform a bunch of complex operations on a range of lines.
You can select the lines in visual mode, and type >. This assumes that you've set your tabs up to insert spaces, e.g.:
setl expandtab
setl shiftwidth=4
setl tabstop=4
(replace 4 with your preference in indentation)
If the lines form a paragraph, >ap in normal mode will shift the whole paragraph above and below the current position.
Let's assume you want to shift a block of code:
setup the count of spaces used by each shift command, :set shiftwidth=1, default is 8.
press Ctrl+v in appropriate place and move cursor up k or down j to select some area.
press > to shift the block and . to repeat the action until desired position (if cursor is missed, turn back with h or b).
Another thing you could try is a macro. If you do not know already, you start a macro with q and select the register to save the macro... so to save your macro in register a you would type qa in normal mode.
At the bottom there should be something that says recording. Now just do your movement as you would like.
So in this case you wanted 2 spaces in front of every line, so with your cursor already at the beginning of the first line, go into insert mode, and hit space twice. Now hit escape to go to normal mode, then down to the next line, then to the beginning of that line, and press q. This ends and saves the macro
(so that it is all in one place, this is the full list of key combinations you would do, where <esc> is when you press the escape key, and <space> is where you hit the space bar: qai<space><space><esc>j0q This saves the macro in register a )
Now to play the macro back you do # followed by the register you saved it in... so in this example #a. Now the second line will also have 2 spaces in front of them.
Macros can also run multiple times, so if I did 3#a the macro would run 3 times, and you would be done with this.
I like using macros for this like this because it is more intuitive to me, because I can do exactly what I want it to do, and just replay it multiple times.
I was looking for similar solution, and use this variation
VG:norm[N]I
N = numbers of spaces to insert.
V=Crtl-V
*** Notice *** put space immediate after I.
I have been using vim for quite some time and am aware that selecting blocks of text in visual mode is as simple as SHIFT+V and moving the arrow key up or down line-by-line until I reach the end of the block of text that I want selected.
My question is - is there a faster way in visual mode to select a block of text for example by SHIFT+V followed by specifying the line number in which I want the selection to stop? (via :35 for example, where 35 is the line number I want to select up to - this obviously does not work so my question is to find how if something similar to this can be done...)
In addition to what others have said, you can also expand your selection using pattern searches.
For example, v/foo will select from your current position to the next instance of "foo." If you actually wanted to expand to the next instance of "foo," on line 35, for example, just press n to expand selection to the next instance, and so on.
update
I don't often do it, but I know that some people use marks extensively to make visual selections. For example, if I'm on line 5 and I want to select to line 35, I might press ma to place mark a on line 5, then :35 to move to line 35. Shift + v to enter linewise visual mode, and finally `a to select back to mark a.
G Goto line [count], default last line, on the first
non-blank character linewise. If 'startofline' not
set, keep the same column.
G is a one of jump-motions.
V35G achieves what you want
Vim is a language. To really understand Vim, you have to know the language. Many commands are verbs, and vim also has objects and prepositions.
V100G
V100gg
This means "select the current line up to and including line 100."
Text objects are where a lot of the power is at. They introduce more objects with prepositions.
Vap
This means "select around the current paragraph", that is select the current paragraph and the blank line following it.
V2ap
This means "select around the current paragraph and the next paragraph."
}V-2ap
This means "go to the end of the current paragraph and then visually select it and the preceding paragraph."
Understanding Vim as a language will help you to get the best mileage out of it.
After you have selecting down, then you can combine with other commands:
Vapd
With the above command, you can select around a paragraph and delete it. Change the d to a y to copy or to a c to change or to a p to paste over.
Once you get the hang of how all these commands work together, then you will eventually not need to visually select anything. Instead of visually selecting and then deleting a paragraph, you can just delete the paragraph with the dap command.
v35G will select everything from the cursor up to line 35.
v puts you in select mode, 35 specifies the line number that you want to G go to.
You could also use v} which will select everything up to the beginning of the next paragraph.
For selecting number of lines:
shift+v 9j - select 10 lines
simple just press Shift v line number gg
example: your current line to line 41
Just press Shift v 41 gg
Shift+V n j or Shift+V n k
This selects the current line and the next/previous n lines. I find it very useful.
You can press vi} to select the block surrounded with {} brackets where your cursor is currently located.
It doesn't really matter where you are inside that block (just make sure you are in the outermost one). Also you can change { to anything that has a pair like ) or ].
v%
will select the whole block.
Play with also:
v}, vp, vs, etc.
See help:
:help text-objects
which lists the different ways to select letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, blocks, and so on.
v 35 j
text added for 30 character minimum
Text objects: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Creating_new_text_objects
http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/motion.html#text-objects
You can always just use antecedent numbers to repeat actions:
In visual mode, type 35↓ and the cursor will move down 35 times, selecting the next 35 lines
In normal mode:
delete 35 lines 35dd
paste 35 times 35p
undo 35 changes 35u
etc.
} means move cursor to next paragraph. so, use v} to select entire paragraph.
It could come in handy to know:
In order to select the same ammount of lines for example use 1v
You should have done some modification to be able to use 1v, blockwise or linewise.
Today I saw this amazing tip from here:
:5mark < | 10mark > | normal gvV
:5mark < | 10mark > | normal gv
You can also reset the visual block boundaries doing so:
m< .......... sets the visual mode start point
m> .......... sets the visual mode end point
I use this with fold in indent mode :
v open Visual mode anywhere on the block
zaza toogle it twice
For selecting all in visual:
Type Esc to be sure yor are in normal mode
:0
type ENTER to go to the beginning of file
vG
Presss V to select the current line and enter the line number on keyboard and the press G.
Vim is pretty powerful when editing by line - the search/replace tools are modeled to work linewise.
But what if I want to change a particular column across all lines? For example, how can I change the 80th column in my file to a # easily?
To edit a column, follow these steps:
Stand on the beginning of the column
Press Ctrl+v, then mark across the column you want to edit.
Press Shift+i to insert text at the beginning of the column, Shift+a to append text, r to replace highlighted text, d to delete, c to change... etc.
Hit ESC when done.
I think people (me) sometimes map the column editing keys to Ctrl+Q so it won't collide with visual select line (V) or paste-text if you mapped it as such.
...I couldn't follow the steps of sa125 (facepalm) so I looked someplace else and found a simpler explanation at: https://blog.pivotal.io/labs/labs/column-edit-mode-in-vi
Ctrl+v [ and select what ever you want]
Shift+i [and write whatever...(check out ** below)]
Esc
*c without Shift can be used instead of step 2, to delete selection before insert. And also r to replace.
**!! Attention Don't be discouraged by the fact that only the first row is changed when you 'write whatever...'!!
Hope it helps!
You can use a substitution where the pattern matches a specific column (\%c):
:%s/\%80c/#/<CR>
Or you can use block-wise visual mode:
gg80|CTRL+vGr#
The 'virtualedit' option can be used to allow positioning the cursor to
positions where there is no actual character:
:set virtualedit
I may be totally off topic here, but if your idea is to avoid long lines, you could have a look at the colorcolumn option of vim 7.3.
For column-wise editing, vis.vim is really useful. You can block-select your column of interest, and manipulate it with normal commands, and even arbitrary Ex commands. From the example on that page, I have often used the pattern:
:'<,'>B s/abc/ABC/g
You can Vundle/Pathogen install vis.vim from github:
Plugin 'taku-o/vim-vis'
I use the shortcut w to move the cursor one word right. Is there a shortcut to move a word left?
Use b to move back one word.
Use w to move forward one word.
And here is a cheat sheet that might be useful for you:
Source: Graphical vi-vim Cheat Sheet and Tutorial
It's b.
You can see other motions here:
Vim documentation: motion, 4. Word motions
Generally a Vim command consists of:
count action motion
Where:
count is number of times you want it to execute. The default is 1.
action is obviously an action: d for delete, c for change, default is empty, and it means simply move.
motion is the direction. You got that already.
In addition to the b movement mentioned in the other answers, another movement which may be interesting is ge.
It brings you to the last letter of the word on the left. When b is considered as the opposite of w, ge can be considered as the opposite of e which brings you to the end of the current word.
Also note that all of those word-wise movement have a WORD-wise equivalent: W, B, E and gE which are "faster". For the difference between words and WORDS see: :h word.
Yes, you can use "b" to backforward a word, and in advance, "2b" to move back two words.
You want to move left (back). b does it.